This lens is designed to perform nicely on portrait or Macro photography. Its specific design specifications mark it as weather-proof.To check its image quality measurements on the Pentax K5 and the K20D click the following links:

The results on this Pentax lens are quite good on measures such as chromatic aberration, transmission and vignetting.

Nevertheless by obtaining a 14 at f/4 on the K5 we can say that its performance is a bit disappointing taking into account the extraordinary sensor quality of the Pentax K5.These results are influenced by the lens resolution which remains a bit low when compared with the other 100mm lenses previously cited.

100 mm lenses comparison

At DxOMark lenses are measured according to how well they perform mounted on a specific camera. Most of the time two measured lenses might be very similar but the cameras used for the measurements almost generally possess a different kind of sensor. This generally impacts the lens’ final score.

Pentax vs Nikon

In this rare occasion we can compare a Nikon and a Pentax lens under almost the same conditions as we are using the Nikon D7000 and the Pentax K5 cameras. These two cameras -as you probably know- share the same sensor.

In these results the Pentax 100mm comes very close to its Canon competitor even if this lens lacks of resolution, (resolution Metric = 46 for Pentax vs 51lp.mm for Canon), the lack of resolution on the Pentax lens side is compensated by the noise performance of the Pentax K5.

Pentax smc 14mm F2.8, a wide and fast lens :

See the full results for this lenses mounted on a Pentax K5 here.The results are a bit disappointing, considering the high market price for this lens.

What we like

Good Distorsion (0.73%) measurements

Vignetting (1.5 EV in the corner at f/2.8) remains pretty well controlled on the wide angle.

What could be better

Again, the sharpness of this lens mounted on the Pentax K5 is a bit low in comparison of similar lenses mounted on sensor with a close resolution (Nikon D7000, Canon EOS 7D).

The resolution in the field is not really homogenous; sharpness falls quickly in the corner at f/2.8.

In general on both mounts the Samyang lens is better than the Pentax. The Samyang 14mm Nikon mount has a lower price and a clearly better resolution (9 lp.mm). Nevertheless the Pentax lens controls distortion better.

On the Canon mount, even if the results are lower, the Samyang lens still takes the lead.

To provide photographers with a broader perspective about mobiles, lenses and cameras, here are links to articles, reviews, and analyses of photographic equipment produced by DxOMark, renown websites, magazines or blogs.